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"Sara asked 'Do you know this gentleman?' and with that Caroline said 'I think it's Jamie. I thought she gave the surname Hynds and said he came from the Folkestone area."

'Just vacant'

The court heard Mr Odley later told police he thought her comment was odd because although Caroline went a couple of steps down closer to where the body was lying, his face could not be seen.

He also said he thought her lack of response to dialling 999 was strange.

Mr Odley described her to police as being 'just vacant' and, during cross-examination by Rushworth's barrister Philip Sinclair, he added: "She was not shocked."

Ms Ringer also gave evidence and said she heard Rushworth say she had lost her handbag.

She described her as appearing 'a little bit out of it' as if she had been drinking.

Three people deny murder

Rushworth and Taylor, of Shipwrights Avenue, Chatham, and a second man, Daniel Fox, 35, of no fixed address, deny murder between August 25 and 29 last year.

It is the prosecution case that all three took park in an attack on Mr O'Rourke which led to his death.

He was last seen alive going into Caulkers House with Rushworth and Taylor just before 10.45pm on Saturday, August 26.

Fox arrived at 11.28pm, left the following morning at 8.30am and never returned.

Police at the scene (Image: Kent999s)

Both Mr Odley and Ms Ringer were adamant when giving evidence that they had seen Mr O'Rourke slumped outside Rushworth's flat, asleep and snoring with blood on his face, at about 9.15pm and then 11.30pm on Sunday, August 27.

They also maintained it was not Taylor, and was the same man they found dead in the stairwell the following morning.

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When told by Rushworth's and Taylor's legal teams he was mistaken about the slumped man's identity, Mr Odley said "I had never seen the gentleman before. If it was Neil I would have known it was Neil,"

Of finding Mr O'Rourke's body, he added: "He was minus his clothes but it was definitely the same man. He had the same build, the same hair.

"I didn't know who the person was. But it was the same man outside Caroline's flat."

Violence flared over missing heroin

Violence is alleged to have flared after a row over missing heroin.

Fox told police after his arrest he intervened in a fight between Taylor and Mr O'Rourke, pushing him into the kitchen and tying him up.

However, Taylor, who did admit to fighting Mr O'Rourke and then later moving the body to the stairs, claimed Fox had 'badly beaten' Mr O'Rourke.